The West Desk Window 11:24am
I am luxuriating in The Full Viewing
of My Beautiful Bird of Paradise
I watch Him from My Vehicle
at the side of Hawk Point Road
My Neck craned to My Left
I gaze across Tidal Flats
at The Break in The Dunes
where Storm Waves wash in
small fry
for My Beautiful Long-legged, Long-necked Friend
Who wades so prominently
through One Grand Pool
to fish at Four Glorious Intervals
before I allow My Self
to finish driving home
to fix Lunch
The Hawk Deck 8:40am
The Morning Sky is Silver
as I heed the wealth
of My Surroundings
–
The Surf is shushing Me again
while My Teacup steeps
My Husband sleeps
I assess the coolness of The Wind
–
9:40am
The Surf is Louder Now
It Wakes Me Up
To The Silver Streaks & Pools
across The Ocean
My Husband is Up
& We’re Having Coffee
–
11:40am
A Pair of Jays have come
to The Straggly Apple by The Deck
Others Join Them
so I have My Flock of Jays
Who squawk out My Growing Up
as They All fly off:
“You are in The Childhood
of Your Maturity
Here On The Hawk”
The Hawk Deck 7:52am
The Sun is in The Ocean
blazing off The Horizon
I hear no waves
only the repetition
of a nearby Crow
CAW CAW
He is preening Himself
in between
CAW CAW
To Sing The Song of The Hummingbird
I write to say I Saw One Today
buzzing in Our bedraggled Apple
& finding Nothing There
buzzed away beyond The House —
I may never see Its Greenness again
What would Its sight portend?
–
I drove with Eliza
& Her First Serious Boyfriend Tyler
to La Creamy Treat in Pubnico
on The Highway Home
Two Flying Objects hit the wind shield
Eliza, driving, pronounced “I killed
Two Hummingbirds with One Car –”
Tyler, from The Back Seat
resolutely announced “I saved
A Hummingbird caught in a Spider Web”
What wonder in a flock of tweeting
twittering Birds overhead —
I heard Them coming before I saw Them —
They began to break up above Me
as I eagerly watched to see Them form Letters
of The Alphabet —
Letters maybe to divine a message
but how could I expect Those Birds —
that Body of Bird Life —
to know My Language?
I spy a stalwart Robin
perched on My Neighbour’s Laundry Pole
–
I watch awhile
until She flies
down to the grass
& there goes My Poem
–
Oh My God — She’s Back!
–
I forgot The Fog–
The Fog is wafting past Her
The Hedge is rustling below Her–
–
Oh, There She Goes–
“I Heard A Bird Fly,”
declared an astonished visitor
to My Mother’s Island House
when I was eleven years old.
–
July 23rd 2012
I Live In The Land of Spirituality–
if I lie in My Bed
on the verge of depression
I am in Error
for I am eternally, rightfully happy
on My Deck or Portico
with Hunter and Eliza and The Cats
and The Birds.
The Jays of Valley Cottage
mix with The Crows of Nova Scotia
I could hear Them
before writing
but now that My Book is out
open on My Lap
I hear the swooshing of The Hedge
& guess The Next Bird To Be–
–I have no guess–
–I’m waiting to hear–
a car pulls into a driveway
a neighbour tinkers in His Shed
so I move to The South of The House
–to The Portico–
where Those Waves are a woosh
with Gulls more audible
& now too, a Jay
Today is Hot for Nova Scotia
–I know It and You know It–
I’m not making more of It
when a humid trip to get the mail
presents The Ethereal Delight:
A Pair of American Gold Finches
splashing, dipping & shaking off
Together in a roadside puddle
Joanna Gilman Hyde 